India at the Moon: the beginning of a historic journey



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Sriharikota: India on Monday launched its second mission on the moon "Chandrayaan-2", which is expected to arrive on Sept. 6 and would make India the fourth country to achieve this goal if successful.

The GSL MVK3, the most powerful ISRO rocket at 2:43 pm local time (9.13 GMT), took off from the launch pad at Sriharikota, in southeastern India, the correspondents of the AFP reported on the scene.

After about 20 minutes, scientists from the Indian Space Agency were applauded and exchanged hugs. "I am pleased to announce that the GSLMK3 has successfully placed Chandrian-2 on the specified orbit," said Kailasavadivu Sevan, director of the agency.

"It's the beginning of a historic trip to India," he said.

The women

The Chandrayaan 2 mission is the first female-led space mission and the first Indian space mission to make a silent landing in the Antarctic. The orbiter, the landing gear and the raft were designed and built entirely in India.

The names of two scientists from the Indian Space Research Organization (NSA) will feature in Indian history as the only ones leading a high-level space mission around the world.

Muthaya Vanitha leads the second Indian expedition on the moon and Reto Karidhal is the director of the mission.

And the two worlds in their forties. They have been part of several previous space launches, as well as work on the development of national satellite subsystems. Vanitya also received the award for best Indian scientist in 2006. Karidhal has been hailed as one of the wildest rocket scientists in India, who played a pivotal role in the 2013 space mission in March.

Objective of the mission

The goal of this unmanned mission is to bring a vehicle and mobile robots near the South Pole of the Moon, about 384,000 km from Earth, on September 6, as well as a probe into the air. Orbit of the cosmic body.

If successful, India would become the fourth country to land a lunar vehicle after the Soviet Union, the United States and China. Israel failed to achieve this goal after an investigation was sent to reach its destination in April.

"The launch of Chandrian-2 highlights the knowledge of our scientists and the determination of 1.3 billion Indians to explore new scientific horizons," said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

ESA and the US State Department congratulated Esro.

The Chandrayaan-2 was to be launched on July 15, but the operation was canceled 56 minutes and 24 seconds later due to a "technical problem" on which the Indian Space Agency (ISI) did not give details.

The local press reported that the leak was caused by a leak in the GSLMK3 engine helium balloon at very low temperatures.

India has earmarked $ 140 million for this task, which is well below that collected by other space agencies for missions of this type.

The launch rocket is not powerful enough to directly reach the moon. The Chandrian-2 will depend on the gravity to fly.

It will gravitate around the Earth for about three weeks, gradually increasing its orbit to reach the lunar orbit.

International attention

The Indian mission lies in the context of renewed international attention on the moon. The man who landed for the last time in 1972 is preparing to return. The US government has asked NASA to prepare the shipment of astronauts in 2024.

The return to the moon is an inevitable step in the preparation of further missions led by Mars.

The Chandrayaan-2 project is the second lunar mission in India, which has already placed a probe in the orbit of the Moon during the Chandrayaan-1 mission 11 years ago.

India's space program is characterized by a combination of high ambitions and limited costs, with much lower operational costs than other agencies, as well as rapid progress.

Isro plans to send three astronauts into space for his first manned flight by 2022. His scientists are working on developing his own space station over the next decade.

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